


Before the party (before the storm)

by stellarel



Series: Dancing on the edge of a storm [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, That's it. That's all this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:33:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23682445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarel/pseuds/stellarel
Summary: Before you can go on an undercover mission to a Royal Ball on Kepler-7b, you have to dress for the occasion.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Reader
Series: Dancing on the edge of a storm [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749343
Comments: 11
Kudos: 58





	Before the party (before the storm)

"Statistically, out of the four of you, she's the best option." The Doctor leans to the console with her arms crossed, having made up her mind. 

"Why does she get to go to a royal ball with you, why can't we all go?" Yaz asks, half annoyed and half disappointed. 

"Because we're supposed to be going undercover. Two new strangers is definitely less suspicious than five, don't you think? Besides, it's not as if I'm just leaving you here. You'll go as waiters, and you know, they always hear the best gossip anyway. It might be the most important role in this whole gig."

"And you're sure it's not just 'cause you want to dance with her?" Yaz challenges, grinning when the Doctor's eyes widened a little.

"No! But now that you brought it up, she _is_ the only one out of you lot that knows how to properly dance."

"Ryan and I can dance, just not the way you like." 

"I know you can, but It's a royal ball, Yaz, not a rave." You offer, a little tired of the whole conversation.

"Well, what about Graham? I'm pretty sure he can waltz. Why don't you take him?"

"No, I can't, don't bring me into this! I'll be happy as a waiter." Graham objects, sounding almost offended that he’d even be considered as the Doctor’s plus one.

The Doctor tilts her head a little, ignoring him. "Well, Graham does look pretty harmless, I suppose, we'd look pretty ordinary together, blend in quite nicely."

"No offense, but with the way you dress, there's not a lot you could do to look ordinary." Ryan pipes in, and the Doctor takes a small, offended gasp and turns to looks at him.

"I could totally look ordinary if I wanted to!"

"Whatever you say, man." He shrugs, sounding like he didn't believe it in the slightest.

You sigh a little. "Right, guys, can we stop bickering and get on with it? We're supposed to stop a lunatic from crashing a spaceship, remember? Do you _really_ wanna waste time arguing about who's going to pretend to be who?"

The Doctor looks at you, smiles, and clasps her hands together. "Exactly! We should be going." She twirls around the console. "Right, you lot, go get changed. White shirts and black bow ties for all of you, black pants. There should be enough in the wardrobe." She makes a vague hang gesture towards the rest of them, and then turns to look at you. "And you, well, you're gonna need something a little more complicated. Follow me."

She leads you down a corridor, to a walk-in closet. "Right. If I remember correctly, at this time they're big on long, flowy dresses, yeah, hoop skirts definitely already passed, so did the puffy sleeves and the strapless things, so..." She's rambling, and you follow her around the maze of coat racks. She stops near one, looking through the hangers, grabbing one. You can mainly only see dark blue fabric, something soft that flows when it moves, and something sparkly. 

"What do you think, old girl? This look like it's from around the right time and place? They're not back on those weird collars yet, are they?"

The TARDIS whirs quietly, and you're assuming the Doctor understands it 'cause she hums back in response. "Didn't think so. This will do, then!" She offers the bundle of fabric to you with a smile. "Right. I think there's still that rule where girls are _supposed_ to wear heels, I'm afraid. Can you do heels?"

"Uh...yeah, I can do heels. I think." You say, a little surprised at it all. She grins. 

"Great! I'm gonna go find something for myself, you put that on and see if you like it. Should be your size. The shoes are, uh...that way, I think." She points to a wall, and turns around, disappearing between the clothes. 

You turn over the dress in your hands, admiring the intricate details. It's beautiful, sparkles in the light, and the fabric seems to flow around you like mist. When you start to put it on, though, you pretty quickly realize that the back has _buttons_ , of all things, or something like that - something that you definitely can't do yourself. 

"Hey, uh, Doctor?" You call out, not sure where she is exactly. 

"Yeah?" 

"Uh, when you're done, can you come help me with the dress? I can't get the back done myself."

Her head pops up from behind a coat rack a little further back into the room. "Yeah, sure, no problem. Just a sec."

When she walks up to you, she's changed into a suit - and god, does she look good. How does she look so good? _It’s not fair_ , you think, _the way seeing her makes you feel._

She's wearing a bow tie too, a blue one. _One that matches your dress,_ you realize, and it makes your cheeks feel a little warmer. 

She's not wearing heels, but black boots instead. Shiny black boots, probably some kind of dress shoes, but still. You don't say anything about it, quietly picturing what would happen if someone told her to wear heels. (A lot of complaining, you'd imagine, and she probably wouldn't do it in the end anyways. Too impractical. _Who wants to wear shoes they have to constantly be aware of?,_ you could easily imagine her arguing). You briefly wondered if she knew about the existence of those barefoot shoes with the separated toes. She would probably like those. 

She grins at you. "Excellent! You'll fit in quite nicely, I promise. You look great!"

You smile a little at this. "Can you help me with the back?"

She smiles, walking over to you. "'Course I can! Turn around." You do, and she moves your hair out of the way gently, brushing it over your shoulder. "Oh, blimey, who came up with this?" She mutters, seeing the back of the dress, and you laugh quietly at it. Try not to think about the way her fingers feel on your bare skin too much. 

"I swear, I don't know what it is about making dresses impossible to get in and out of by yourself! It's dumb that you'd always need somebody else there to help you. You'd think people would've figured that out by now."

You smile at her rambling as she tries to figure out what to do with the dress. 

"Hmm. You know that's always been a problem with humans, not giving girls independence over anything."

"You're plenty independent, I think."

"And yet, here you are, helping me get dressed. And you know, you're gonna have to get me out of this dress later, too." You realize what that sounds like the second you've said it, and so does she, evidently, because her fingers falter just a bit, and you're pretty sure you hear her breathing hitch, just a little. You're blushing, and don't really know where to go from that, so you just stay quiet and focus on trying to return your face to a normal color. 

She finishes going through the buttons in silence. “There, all done.” she breathes out, and gently puts her hands over your shoulders. "You can worry about getting undressed later. Now we have a dance to get to." You can hear the smile in her voice.

You pick out a pair of decently comfortable shoes, and sit down to the dresser to sort out your hair, while she's rummaging through some drawers. 

"Doctor?"

She hums as a response, not really looking at you.

"They won't have a problem with...this, you know, the two women thing, will they?" You meet her eyes through the mirror.

"Nah, shouldn't think that. That hasn't been a thing for quite a while now, humans got over that pretty quickly in the end. And besides, this is an interplanetary thing, I think we'll just be seen as two humanoid-looking things, not as two women specifically. I don't think most of the other species even know much about human genders. Don't worry." She brushes you off with a wave of her hand and a smile. "I mean, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between most alien genders, either, right?" 

"Hm. Okay. Just checking that we won't end up being burned at the stake or anything."

"I think we’re good. But, you know, if it makes you feel more comfortable we could always pretend to be like, family or something, instead of a couple? I could be your...well, I guess grandpa doesn't work anymore now, huh? I need to come up with something new."

You chuckle quietly at this. "You don't look old enough to be anyone's grand-anything, Doctor. I think you could maybe pass as my cousin?" You think it over. "But isn't this thing going to be mainly couples? I mean, isn't that what you do when you're invited to one of these, you take your significant other? And to be honest, if we show up like this, I think that's what people are going to assume." 

You weren’t sure if she could tell, but she didn’t exactly look like she was straight, by any human standards, anyways.

She stills and tilts her head a little, looks over at you. "Hm. You're probably right. Doctor and Mrs. Smith, then?" She offers the fake name to you, and you smile at it a little. 

"Sure. Sounds good."

The thought makes your skin tingle.

"You know, I was a fake boyfriend once. I bet this can't be much harder. Although then I was naked the whole time, that was a mistake. Won't be doing that again." She frowns.

You furrow your brows at this, a little amused. Sometimes you weren't sure if she was joking or not, with the strange stories that always seemed to surprise you. Even though maybe you really shouldn't be surprised by anything she says anymore. 

"Hm. Yeah, I think the King would appreciate it if we _didn't_ come to his royal ball naked." You smile a little.

"Have you met him? Personally, I think he'd be thrilled. The rest of the quests, though, maybe not so much. Or the Queen. Might make things awkward. Plus we'd freeze, it's super cold out there this time of the year."

You chuckle at this and fix your makeup a little bit. "Whatever you say, Doctor. But in any case, I think it's safest if we wear clothes. Besides, it'd be too much work to get this dress off now, anyways." 

**Author's Note:**

> This whole thing might as well just have been "13 in a suit, am i right?"


End file.
